In this PhD study, we will explore the unmet social and healthcare needs of older people in Finland. We aim to reveal how unmet social care needs are associated with mortality, the use of home care and institutionalization in later life. We also aim to provide insights on risk factors linked to unmet needs.

This study is part of two projects: the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study, and the Old-age Social Exclusion in Home Care – Prevalence, Meanings & Intervention (SOLDEX) project.

Olen oikeusfilosofi. Tutkimusalani: oikeus ja moraali, oikeus ja kieli, oikeus ja antropologia, oikeus ja talous & liikeetiikka, oikeus ja uskonto, arktisen alueen lainsäädäntö, eurooppalainen oikeuskulttuuri, filosofia ja etiikka, poliittinen teoria jne. Olen humanisti. Olen puolalainen ja perinteinen katolilainen, joka on kiinnostunut juutalaisuudesta. Asun Joensuussa.

Lisäksi teen ”kaiken puolalaista” (”all things Polish”).

Courses (teologia, nyt, 2023-2024):

• ”Controversies and challenges of religion and law in Europe”,
• “Religion in Poland” (REES/Aleksanteri institute-course),
• “Good governance, the rule of law and religious freedom as approaches to sustainable development in the Global South” (UniPID course).

Courses (teologia, 2022/2023):

• “Jews and Judaism in Poland, Russia, the Baltic countries and East Central Europe”,
• “Ukrainian-Polish relations: history, politics, culture, law, religion”.

Social sciences (2023/2024):

• koordinaattori: YUFE course ”Global Migration and European Identity” ja
• opettaja: ”Populism in East Central Europe”.

Irina Mihailova is Associate Professor of International Business at the International Business and Sales faculty. She joined University of Eastern Finland in 2019. Previously Irina worked at the Aalto University School of Business as Senior University Lecturer of International Business. 

Irina’s work received significant interest within the academic community with publications in the Journal of World Business, Academy of Management Review, Organization Studies, Management and Organization Review, and Management International Review, amongst others. Irina regularly present her research at leading international business and entrepreneurship conferences, and I am a member of the Academy of International Business, European International Business Academy, and Academy of Management. Irina have received several prestigious honors, including the Emerald Citation of Excellence, and Honor recognition for Best PhD thesis from Aalto University. Irina serves on the editorial board of the Journal of International Management and Emprendimiento y Negocios Internationales. 

Irina teach courses in the areas of International Business and Global Management at post-graduate and doctoral programs. She has delivered invited guest lectures and presentations at a number of leading international universities. Also, I have cooperated with firms and government agencies and have given several public speeches. Also, she have co-authored a number of teaching cases and received an excellence award from European Case Center.

We study the molecular mechanisms of cancer cell plasticity and prostate cancer treatment resistance including neuroendocrine transdifferentiation and cellular neuroplasticity programs in prostate cancer. We aim at identifying novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers for neuroendocrine prostate cancer and ways to bring treatment resistant prostate cancer cells back to antiandrogen therapy sensitive state. We employ several genome-wide and cellular imaging methods such as RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq and live-cell high-content and -throughput imaging and drug screening to understand and target through precision medicine approaches the cellular plasticity stages and epigenetic reprogramming in cancer treatment resistance. We also utilize patient-derived organoids of prostate and neuroendocrine prostate cancer patients as well as patient blood samples on different treatment stages to identify and validate our findings. Our recent identified novel players highly overexpressed after antiandrogen therapy include neuroplasticity protein DPYSL5, which regulates antiandrogen enzalutamide resistance, chromatin reprogramming and neuronal cell phenotype in prostate cancer, Fanconi anemia pathway and FANCI which plays a role in carboplatin resistance in prostate cancer as well as a stem cell transcription factor which turns on cancer stem cell and resistance program in androgen-independent prostate cancer. By inhibiting these cellular plasticity programs we believe we can target the development of aggressive forms of cancer.

Find Ketola Lab pages: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/cancer-cell-plasticity-ketola-lab/